She and her team calculated three-year average pay (from 2011-2013) for us. They included the impact of previous stock grants. They compared that to what their peers earned. And from that they came up with a "Performance Adjusted Compensation" number for each exec.

We ranked the CEOs based on their "Performance Adjusted Compensation."

No. 6 Highest Paid: NetSuite's Zach Nelson At $18.42 million

Reason: In 2013, the board granted Nelson $9.77 million in restricted stock (plus more than $1.6 million in stock options), more than double the previous year's grants and five times more RSUs than two years earlier.

For instance, Salesforce.com paid him $14.5 million worth of options in 2012, $18.9 million in 2013, $27.7 million in 2014. Meanwhile, Benioff owns just over 7% of the company, more than any other individual person.

He did take a slight cut in pay for the switch, but he is overpaid by just about any standard. "As the founder CEO, he received annual option grants of $70M (grant date value)," notes Ferracone.

11/

And Now For The Shocking List Of Lowest Paid CEOs ...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/danmoyle/

Some of the wealthiest CEOs are actually underpaid — by today's executive pay standards anyway.

They fall into "Farient's ownership criteria" which means they have a big stake in their companies (typically because they are founders). Those stakes can be worth at least 20 times what they would be paid as a hired-gun CEO.

If they take a big salary and options on top of that (like Marc Benioff and Larry Ellison), they could be considered overpaid. If they don't, they might actually be "underpaid" comparatively speaking.

With that explanation, click on to see the list of lowest paid CEOs ...

No. 9 Lowest Paid CEO: Microsoft's Satya Nadella At $1.42 Million

Reason: Nadella is a long-time employee, so Ferracone was able to calculate how much he earned over three years. Based on that, he landed on the "underpaid list."

He likely won't stay there. As a CEO of one of the world's most important tech companies, he'll be paid well. But his huge starter kit of stock, valued at about $65 million, won't begin to vest until 2019. Another one-time stock grant worth $13.5 million vests over seven years.

No. 5 Lowest Paid CEO: Daktronics' Reece Kurtenbach At $480,960

Reason: The CEO is the son of the founder, Dr. Aelred Kurtenbach, who still holds a 5% stake. In 2013 Reece was paid $282,227 in salary, some stock grants ($35,000), a bonus ($82,000), and $165,900 worth of options.

The stock trades for about $12.40 with a market cap of about $544 million.

No. 1 Lowest Paid CEO: Google's Larry Page At $0

Reason: Page doesn't take a salary, stock grants or options, or bonuses. But he owns a stake worth $29.5 billion, according to Forbes including 42% of Google's Class B "voting rights" shares, for instance.

And that's why this billionaire is our No. 1 underpaid CEO.

21/

Now check out the best places in tech to be an employee

People walk past a logo next to the main entrance of the Google building in Zurich March 9, 2011.
Reuters